Irish independent’s day and night magazine

Q Were the scenes with gollum difficult?

EW “Andy Serkis was there, for reference passes, and every scene we did, he was there for the animators. It gave us all a chance to get the feeling of how it was going to go. We were physically interacting with him, which was a pretty comfortable process after a while.”

Q Most actors groan at being called back for reshoots, but given that you guys spent 15soul-searching months together in New Zealand already, getting back together must have felt like a family reunion?

EW “Absolutely, it was like a reunion. Theres that strange feeling of not having left too, but i love going back. It was interesting, because it wasn’t rehashing stuff we had already done. It was just enhancing what was already there, and seeing what they already have and what we could do better than that.”

Q Talking to you last year before the fellowship you were contemplating the impact of its release. How has your year been, given the enormous cult surrounded the movie?

EW “Oh, the effect has been outrageous. Essentially, everywhere I go I get a certain amount of attention because of the movie. I did some interviews yesterday; they were asking, “Has your life changed?” and I’m saying “Yeah, but its easy”. Then I went to this play last night here in New York and it was easy enough to get into the play, but someone must have tipped people off because when I left, there were 15, 20 people with lord of the Rings stuff waiting for me. But they were these professional fans, who just sell the stuff, so its like a job to them – these 30 and 40-year-olds who need to get a life – but they crushed me up against a wall, and it was intense”

Q Couldn’t you just sign ‘f**k off’ on every one?

EW “That’s the thing, man, I try to be accommodating, because normally in those situations its easy to sign a few and then move on. But these are the kind of people where if you give an inch, they take 10,000 miles. So it was insane”

Q Of course for the fans and for many, many others you’re gonna be Frodo for the rest of your life.

EW “Yeah, there is truth to that because as long as I live, I’ll always be Frodo for many people, and the movies will go down in history to a certain degree. But as long as I keep working, and changing my roles, I don’t think I’ll just have Frodo. I’m not sitting back and letting this movie take over my career, so to speak. I did a lot of work before Lord of the Rings and I plan to do a lot after Lord of the Rings too.”

Q You must hear about Lord of the Rings morning noon and night so I can imagine the burnout you must suffer.

EW “It gets a little old, yeah. I remember when people first started asking me about it when I got back from New Zealand, and I was so enthusiastic about it. I was like ‘It was amazing’, blah, blah, blah, and I would go on for hours about it. Now when people ask me how it was, I say ‘Great’. ‘Are you excited about the next movie?’ ‘Can’t wait’. But it’s true. I still am excited, but I think my excitement has drizzled slightly because I have talked about it so much, especially this time of year. It’s becoming an annual thing. But the thing is I still love it, and I’m genuinely excited about the next movie. I haven’t seen it yet, but I feel like a fan myself. When people come up to me on the streets and say, ‘I can’t wait for Two Towers,’ I’m like ‘Dude, neither can I!’ ‘But you’re in it!’. ”